Wednesday, 26 November 2014

It has been said that “If you tell a lie big enough and keep
repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.” Into this category
falls the Government’s lie that savage cuts to essential public services are an
austerity-driven imperative to reduce national debt. It is nothing of the sort:
the debt rises to record levels, while big business cherry picks services that
have been built over many years with public money and expertise. While their
shareholders, wherever they may be, will reap the short-term benefit, the
euphemistically named ‘third sector’ – charities and voluntary groups – will be
left to pick up the pieces. Government has no interest in public service.

Some lies, though, are so big that they can’t even be spoken aloud
– except in terms of baffling acronyms designed to send us into stupor before
we’ve understood their consequences. No doubt it is for this reason that the
media (dominated by the multinationals who stand to benefit) have told us
nothing about TTIP and why there is no public debate about ISDS – though it is
no exaggeration to say that these represent the biggest challenges to
democratic governance in a generation.

The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) is a
trade treaty that has been negotiated between the EU and the US for some years
– almost entirely behind closed doors and the details of which the EU and our
government appear shy about disclosing. Its purpose, apparently, is to remove
the barriers to trade between the continental blocs. Who could possibly argue
with that?! Except the current trade barriers between the EU and US are already
very low. In fact, the treaty’s purpose is to remove those pesky
profit-blocking rules – the ones that stop consumers being poisoned or killed,
or that prevent pollution.

It is argued that this consumer-protecting legislation (derided
by government as “bureaucratic red tape”) needs to be “harmonised”. Again,
difficult to argue with that (though US regulation is far less stringent
– eg 70% of US processed food contains genetically modified ingredients). But
that is where the Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) – a part of the TTIP
– comes into play. ISDS will allow big multinationals, using their armies of
corporate lawyers, to sue national governments in offshore “arbitration
tribunals” – beyond the UK
courts – for doing anything that harms their profits. Fanciful? Not at all.
Philip Morris, the US
tobacco conglomerate, has already used similar trade treaties to sue the Uruguayan
and Australian governments for trying to implement greater control on cigarette
advertising. And a Swedish energy company has sued Germany for phasing out nuclear
power. So should a future UK government try to enact a law that, for example,
restricted the ability of a private-sector US medical services giant poaching
great swathes of the NHS, it would find itself being sued for billions.

By means of TTIP – supported by the three main parties and UKIP
– our government is stripping UK
citizens of the last vestiges of protection from rapacious big business. Speak
out before it’s too late.